Good story, sadly with classic romance pitfalls

The reader is doing a good job so the book is a pleasure to listen to, the characters are interesting and the plot does a great job at building suspense and offering a few riddles. And the setting, Cornwall, works really well, especially since it means we see the heroine and her entourage deal with unfamiliar settings.

There are a few standard clichés, like the superficial, money-hungry relatives. 'scuse me, romance writers in general, if money is so unnecessary to happiness and love, why do 90% of your heroines manage to fall in love with rich heros? It seems like in Regency England you couldn't throw a stone without injuring some brooding, handsome, athletic men with a fortune, castle and ample inheritence stowed away somewhere.

Not surprisingly, the heroine has a much superior approach to stuff like etiquette and rules of society, as a matter of fact remarkably like that a millenial reader might have. Again, seems to be a widespread trend among young pretty women in those times.

Okay, characters like that are easier to write and easier to relate to, and they are fun if the writing is good, which I think it really is. If I couldn't live with that, I probably wouldn't be reading romance novels. (Though just to point out: it's not a necessity, there are some excellent writers out there who manage to come up with much more variety in their heroines. I'm looking at you, Courtney Milan!)

What shot another star out of the overall rating: for at least half of the plot, the poor brooding hero is behaving extremely shelfish to somebody who did nothing to deserve that. Okay, cool, flawed character, chance for character development in the form of growing a spine and all. That'll make for all sorts of suspense and drama and entertainment, lay on!

Except that it doesn't: the solution to the 'hero' being selfish and irresponsable isn't for him to man up and be honest, but it's to pretend that the victim of his dickish is somehow the bad guy, and therefor deserving this treatment. No facing once failings or making amends needed, problem solved, reader satisfaction ... well, depends, I guess.

It took a lot of enjoyment out of the story for me, because from that point onward, the hero could have been eaten by rabid moles for all that I cared. Doesn't mean it has to be a big deal for everybody.

Basically: this is a book where all the good, nice, clever people are friends with the heroine or hero, and anybody in the way of their happiness or not on their side is silly, bad or both.

That's okay in fiction as long a there is fun and suspense going on? Good for you, enjoy.

Dealbreaker? Good, there are writers out there who stay away from that pattern.

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